1588. In Lisbon the great Spanish Armada stands ready. In the Low Countries the forces of the Duke of Parma prepare for war. & in the shadows an even darker games is underway
- a game of espionage & murder, treachery & deceit, played with the stiletto-blade, the poisoned chalice, the torturer's rack... Faced with such deadly foes, legendary spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham sends young Christian Hardy to discover the truth. But as one by one his agents vanish, time is running out
- for Hardy, for Engl&, & for its sovereign Queen Elizabeth